Shropshire Union. Tyrley Wharf to Hurleston Junction

We had a nice surprise while we were at Tyrley; a hire boat came past us. This in itself is not a particularly remarkable occurrence - between Easter and October, come hell or high water and through rain or shine - a fairly unremitting stream of hire boats pass us all the time. Filled with families in matching life-jackets, cutlass wielding pirate crews, balloon strewn birthday parties or fairies with “L” plates on, they provide us with plenty of entertainment. They in turn are always pleased to see our efforts; the flowers and the tea cosy always bring a smile! However the hire boat that passed us at Tyrley wasn’t just any old hire boat. Six years ago, along with Dave’s sister Kate and her partner John, we had a fabulous week on Shadowfax, a brand new 60’ 6 berth semi-trad from Chas Harden Boats.

We took it from Beeston Wharf to Llangollen and back and loved every minute of it. It was on that trip that we made up our minds and decided that being water gypsies really was what we wanted, so when it drifted past our window at Tyrley there was much waving and taking of photos. We know how much hammer a hire boat can get in six years and for it to still look this good is a tribute to how well Chas looks after his fleet. The people on holiday on it seemed to be having a nicely chilled time.
Here’s something else that turned up.

That’s the new Canal & Rivers Trust Logo on the side of a new van. Dave had a chat with the BW (soon-to-be CRT) man who had come to check on the lock and clean out the weirs. Very positive attitude about the transfer; in his words, “Well, it can’t fail can it?” Which is good, as we weren’t sure how they’d feel about lots of volunteers invading their workplace.
Our good friends Wiltz & Annie came to visit for a very enjoyable couple of days and helped us down the locks to Audlum. Wiltz did a very competent steering job,

Ann-Marie & Annie did the gate pushing

and Dave went ahead setting locks. Like a well-oiled machine we arrived at the famous Shroppie Fly in the afternoon and tied up on the 5 day moorings outside the pub.

Sadly, we needed a secure mooring for a few days as we had to leave Legend and go to a funeral. Karen’s Father-in-Law John passed away, he was a lovely man and his family will miss him terribly. As always we came away feeling guilty that we only see half the people we know when we’re wearing black, but that’s probably the case for most of the population.
From Audlem we carried on up the Shroppie to Hurleston Junction where the Llangollen goes off up four narrow locks to the west. This is the view of the first lock from the boat,

and this is the view of the boat from the first lock.

As we went up the 4 narrow locks onto “The Welsh” the lock keeper asked Ann-Marie how Dave had managed to get her to give up a house and live on board, as he’d been trying to persuade his wife to do that for years. She told him that he’d just kept on swapping wives until he found one that would!

Misty morning on the Welsh just above Hurleston.

Staffs & Worcs, Shropshire Union canals. Bratch to Tyrley Wharf.

"Well up the Shroppy" describes our situation perfectly.

When we got back from Bristol we went through The Bratch

and followed the Staff & Worcs, past Tettenhal where our mate John used to moor,

up to Aldersley Junction where we turned off onto the Shropshire Union.

The signpost says Chester and ultimately this canal goes to Elsmere Port, but we’re only going as far as Nantwich where, after a little meander to Llangollen, the Middlewich Branch will take us east to the Trent & Mersey. The southern end of the Shroppy has a very distinctive look about it. Originally the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal, it was built by Thomas Telford in 1835, quite a bit later than the Staffs & Worcs, and with all the engineering skills that had been learnt to date. Bold cuttings and embankments take it in straight lines across the countryside; a super-highway of its day, and result in both spectacular views and high sweeping bridges.

When we got to Brewood the visitor moorings were all taken so we went through the bridge and moored up at the first available spot, which just happened to be opposite these two boats.

The old working boat under the blue tarp is called Lynx. This is what she looks like without the covers.

Lynx and Straw Bear belong to Fred & Sadie, who we know through Pig Dyke Molly. Straw Bear spends the winter at the end of Sadie’s garden on the River Nene in Whittlesea. In the spring it makes the long trip up through Northampton and Birmingham to Brewood where they swap it for Lynx and go cruising. We had the privilege of being aboard Lynx when she went down the Anderton Boat Lift a couple of years ago.

Hopefully we’ll have enough time when we’re passing to give Legend a go on it and a couple of days on the River Weaver.

After Brewood (and in need of a lick of paint), there is the very ornate Stretton Aqueduct over the busy A5

followed by the only lock for miles at Wheaton Aston, which due to being the first, and often only, lock encountered by day trippers and hire-boaters provides lots of entertainment . Out next stop was Norbury junction – very pretty and touristy with a pub, café, gift shop, chandlery, hire base and nicely restored BW offices - but not much of a junction anymore as the Newport Branch which used to go off from here is now just a short arm to a dry dock where the first lock used to be.

The next afternoon Elizabeth and Pete came aboard for a little trip with their 3 beautiful girls. We rolled the front covers away and took them up to Shebdon. In the space of a couple of hours we passed under the famous High Bridge, one of the most photographed icons of the canals, and made short work of an Ann-Marie chocolate cake, one of the most looked-forward-to icons of our boat.

After the impressive Shebdon Aqueduct there is an overhanging canopy and loading bay at Knighton Wharf which has this sign on it -

It could do with a good scrub, if you can’t make it out it reads “This wharf was used between 1911 & 1961 for the processing of locally collected milk products and shipment of chocolate crumb by canal to Cadbury Ltd Bourneville”. It had to be done.

After that came the vertically sided sandstone cutting at Woodseaves

(over a mile long and dug with shovels and wheelbarrows) followed by a lovely 48hr mooring at the top of Tyrley locks just before Market Drayton. There’s a car park, a sanitary station, a winding hole and some permanent moorings here; when we’re too old and knackered to be continuous cruisers any more this will do nicely.

Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. Stourport junction to The Bratch.

We’re getting a lot of practice at driving up and down the A46/M5 from Daventry to the West Country. We’d only just got back from Cornwall when we were off again to Bristol. We’ve left Legend just below The Bratch; a very popular 3 lock staircase with a resident lock keeper who looks after it beautifully. The grass is always trim, the gardens neat and tidy and the paintwork spotless. Legend should be happy there for a few days. We had to dash off and leave it again because, lucky us, we won a pair of tickets to Bristol Folk Festival. Yipee!! Yes it is possible to get to Bristol by boat; there are several narrowboats in the harbour and it’s on our list of future destinations. If we’d had the necessary river licenses and six months to do it we wouldn’t have hesitated. However we hadn’t so, after spending Friday with Chloe, (the afternoon in Ikea spending her money, the evening at her house with Janice and Paul – great fish & chips, by the way – and the night in her spare room) we were heading west again.

The line-up at Bristol is great; Show of Hands, Cara Dillon, Afro Celt Sound System and lots of other good stuff. It's all on at the Colston Hall right in the middle of the city centre, so it's a bit different to other festivals we’ve been to. There's no marquee for one thing, just two stages in a warm, dry, acoustically perfect theatre. And, of course nowhere to pitch a tent; instead we are experiencing the delights of “indoor camping” which, we happily discovered, is as much floor as you want in a church crypt, plus use of a kitchen and toilets. Again it’s warm and dry, there’s a fan oven, the water never runs out and we can sit opposite each other at a table without our knees touching. Our fellow campers seem to be grimly enduring the primitive conditions, we can’t think why – we’re revelling in the luxuriousness of it all. And what a front door!

Our personal favorites from the 150-odd acts over the 3 days are a brilliant performance poet called Ash Dickinson, a very talented 18 year-old singer songwriter and future star called Kitty Macfarlane, and our old friends 3 Daft Monkeys who had us all bouncing around like loons on Monday evening before we attacked the M5 for the final time in the pouring rain.

Dave has got another dentist appointment on Tuesday, so our next boat move will be Wednesday, followed by several more over the following few days. Hopefully we’ll be well up the Shroppy by our next instalment.

Stourbridge Canal. Delph to Stourport Junction

As you come away from the BCN, just before the Stourbridge locks, there is a junction on the right which takes the intrepid onto the Fens Branch; a short feeder arm which is navigable for about 300yds, after which it rapidly becomes a shallow weedy ditch reminiscent of canals of our youth. Just before it gets too bad (only just) there is another junction with the 200yd-long Stourbridge Extension Canal. On the off-side of this are moorings behind a fence with a BW keyed gate.

It’s a seldom used back-water and the turn is a bit silted up; we only draw about 2’ and we still had a fight winding and backing onto the moorings, although once we’d got tied up we found ourselves in about 4’ of clear water. The lakes that feed the canals, together with the un-navigable section and the dis-used railway line that lies alongside it, have all been turned into a nature reserve, so that despite being between heavy industry and housing estates it was the quietest night we’ve had since entering suburbia a month ago. But it still wasn’t the countryside and, although we couldn’t justify it and were annoyed with ourselves for feeling it, instead of being happy and secure behind our locked gate, we felt isolated and vulnerable. Which is a sad reflection of what society has become.

No…No it’s not, it’s a sad reflection of what the media, the frightened, the paranoid and the power hungry would have us believe. The facts are these; we had a peaceful night in a lovely spot. Birds came to our bird table and we scavenged some firewood from the surrounding area. We exchanged pleasantries with some local people and no-one fire-bombed our boat or mugged us at knife point. No different to anywhere else we’ve moored. Our only excuse for our unjustified wariness is the relentless threatening presence those urban ugly sisters, graffiti and razor-wire.

The descent of the Stourbridge 16 the following day was a rather damp affair, and was foreshortened to the Stourbridge 12 at lunchtime.

We stopped outside the glass factory museum, warmed ourselves up with a shower and a hot chocolate and watched it rain all afternoon, then did the remaining 4 locks the following morning. At the bottom we turned left into the Stourbridge Town Arm and followed it to the basin at the end where we turned round before mooring up for a look at the town.

Dave used to deliver steel to a big stockholder right by the basin when he first started trucking 20 odd years ago and remembered seeing the boats tied up. The steelworks have long gone- there’s nothing left but the empty shell of the weighbridge - but the canal has flourished, the wharf offices have been renovated and the basin is a busy boatyard with so many boats there’s only just enough room to wind.

After unloading at the steelworks, Dave would drive past the end of Canal St in his artic at silly o-clock in the morning, look longingly down the cobbled street to the wharf and promise himself he’d bring his own boat there one day. A lot of water has gone under a lot of bridges since then, but he got there.

Back on the Stourbridge Canal we did the final 4 locks down to the Staffs and Worcs and tied up just off the junction on a 5 day mooring.

Perfect. We were in two minds about going south to Kinver with the boat before starting northwards, but in the end we went for a walk down the tow-path instead. On the way is Stewpony Wharf, packed with fab stuff for the canal maniac; a hexagonal toll house,

a circular weir

and this gorgeous bridge.

The little Dunsley Tunnel is a strange affair, hewn from the sandstone and quite low.

The sign says 1.89m, which would mean having to take stuff of the roof, so it’s just as well we walked. We needed a 5 day mooring where we felt Legend would be safe as we were charging around the country in the car for a while; first to the dentist and then down to visit Dave’s sister Kate in her new house in Newlyn, near Penzance. We’d arranged to meet Anne at Chloe’s in Daventry and take her with us. It all sounds manic, and it was, but it does make sense, honest. Kate’s visit was a belated birthday celebration; we had a lovely day beachcombing, (Ann-Marie made this penguin – a copy of the one that Dave made in Oz)

and milling around Penzance shops and cafes, then in the evening went for a super dinner followed by a jam session in a pub; lots of very good local talent taking it in turns with everything from The Beatles to George Michael, including a stunning ‘All along the Watchtower’. It was like Hendrix was in the room.

It was lovely to see Kate happy in her beautiful little cottage, but sadly we only had one day - since we’ve retired we don’t have time for anything – so the next morning we said goodbye to Kate, hurtled back up to Chloe’s where we said goodbye to Anne, then back over to the Staffs & Worcs. We left the car at The Bratch at Wombourne, our next mooring spot, and walked back to Legend. We were back on board by 7pm, not bad going. We’ve decided to adopt that pattern of moving for a while; always having the car ahead and walking - or cycling - back for the boat. We’ve got to abandon our ‘not very far, not very often’ policy and get a shift on for a bit; we want to be up on the Llangollen Canal, (or ‘The Welsh’ as old boaters called it) at the end of May. Mandy & Chas are coming for a visit and we want to take them over the Pontypontycyclisty aqueduct and we’ve got our booking on the Ribble Link for the 19th July. This boating lark is all go isn’t it?

Dudley Canals. Hawne Basin to Merryhill.

It was only when we were back in the water after a week on dry land in a shed that we realised just how much we’d missed it; it seems that being warm and gently rocked to sleep at night is somehow addictive. Having daylight coming through the windows definitely is.

Once we were back back through Gosty Hill tunnel and up to Windmill End we stoked the fire up and awarded ourselves a couple of days R&R. The Dudley Canals Trust (DCT) information centre situated on the junction is a smashing place and well worth a visit.

It includes a little café and a resident herd of geese, as well as a mine - excuse the pun - of information about the history of the Dudley Canals, the surrounding industry that they supported and the impact it all had on the rest of the world at the time. On a topical note, the anchor for the Titanic was made in nearby Netherton, famous throughout the world for its anchors and chains.

The iron ore, limestone and coal used in the blast furnaces, foundries and forges that made the Black Country what it was, came out of the ground here, and the finished products were transported away by water and rail. The scars on the landscape, although healed, are still very real. You can’t take a 30’ high coal seam out from under several square miles of landscape without leaving one or two clues.

All the way along both Dudley Canals there is evidence of the Trust’s hard work; towpath improvements, tree felling, restoration and vegetation control. At relevant places along the bank there are iron structures telling the story of the Black Country and the canals.

Fabulous.

There was a gap in the rainy weather on Tuesday so we upped sticks and meandered off to the bright lights of Merryhill, passing Withymoor Island,

which struck us as an idyllic place for a permanent mooring and stopping at the nicely restored Blowers Green Pumping Station - another tribute to the efforts of the DCT.

It stands majestically on the junction of the Dudley No1 and No2 canals with the 12’ deep Blowers Green lock right outside. So that’s another canal boated from one end to the other, although to be fair the Dudley No2 used to continue past Hawne Basin and through the horrible Lappal tunnel to Selly Oak. At just over 7’ wide and over 5000yds long with no towpath or headroom, Lappal tunnel was universally hated by the boaters. Rather than legging the boats through there was a pumping engine at each end creating a sort of pitch-black, claustrophobic, underground log-flume. They probably had a knees-up when it collapsed.

Merryhill is a bit of a surprise. Retail heaven – or hell, depending on your point of view – pops out at you as you round a bend; all shiny glass and pointy architecture. There are two bits to it, one is called Waterside, with bars, restaurants and a mooring basin,

(unconfirmed rumours say there is free electric to be had on the pontoons) the other bit overlooks the sprawling shopping centre itself. If you’ve been, you’ll know how big it is and although it isn’t our usual habitat, over the past couple of rainy days it’s been rather nice to have somewhere warm and dry that we can roam about in, with the added bonus of free wifi for hours on end for the price of a cup of coffee. And we get a little buzz when we come back outside and our boat is at the top of the hill.

At sometime in the next few days, depending on what the weather does, we’ll be going down the Delph Nine onto the Stourbridge Canal, marking the end of our BCN excursion for now. That’s followed by a descent down the Stourbridge 16, a diversion along the Stourbridge Town Arm and finally the Stourton 4; a total drop of 270’ from the Birmingham Level down to Stourport Junction and the Staffordshire and Worsestershire Canal.

We were, to say the least, a bit apprehensive about bringing our home into the middle of a big city, especially as it was going to be left on its own for a couple of nights, but it’s been fine. The car hasn’t; a pair of numpties ran up the bonnet and over the roof leaving muddy footprints. One of them slipped off and broke the mirror (and a femur, hopefully) on the way down.

We’re being fairly philosophical about that for two reasons;
1. The mirror was already broken and needed replacing before the next MOT.
2. If it had been a 2CV we would have probably found it upside-down in the canal.
All in all we’ve had a positive experience, but we can’t wait to get back out where we belong – in the middle of nowhere.

Dudley No2 Canal. Hawne Basin, Halesowen.

By complete coincidence Legend came out of the water almost exactly 1 year after we bought her. The reason we ended up on the slipway at Hawne Basin was because John & Jac, who had originally booked the week, ended up doing all their painting and blacking in Braunston last year. As they’d paid a non-returnable deposit they gave us their booking. Thank-you guys, it was even better than we expected. The slipway crew made pulling 17 tonnes of boat up a slope look easy; a trolley runs on rails into the water, the boat floats over it, and then the whole lot is gently winched out. They do it every Friday and are very slick. The facilities in the basin are lovely; on Friday afternoon we found ourselves in the clubhouse with tea, cake and raffle tickets. All very civilised. However, that was about the last time we stopped to do anything social all week.

Here’s what we did do.

First, as part of the slipway hire, Tony (The Main Man) pressure washed the hull and declared it “Not too bad really, I’ve seen a lot worse. Some of ‘em are down-right fright’nin’!” only he didn’t say “down-right”.

After that we were left pretty much to ourselves; the only rules were No Grit Blasting and No Spraying. By Friday night we’d got the first coat of hull blacking on,

on Saturday we took the rudder out for cleaning and painting. (Actually what happened was that we undid the bolts and slowed it’s decent to the ground. A bit.) We cleared and prepped the roof, put another coat of blacking on the hull and Tony put 4 new anodes on.

These are 4Kg lumps of magnesium that are welded to the hull below the waterline. They’re sacrificial; in other words, instead of the steel boat going rusty, the magnesium (being more volatile) gradually disappears.

On Sunday, John (of “John & Camilla” fame) came over to lend a hand. Just as well really; no way would we have got the rudder back in on our own. John and Dave manhandled it back up and we put 10 nice new stainless bolts in the holes, which we feel is a vast improvement over the 5 rusty ones that have been holding it together till now. John took the weed hatch out and then bravely went up the hole from underneath with a blacking brush. That’s what friends are for, eh? We put what was left of the blacking along the waterline, where the fenders rub and on the rubbing strakes. That was 20 litres of Intertuf 16. If it had been warmer we would have probably got 3 coats out of it, but as it was so cold and thick we’d got through it all in 2½. Still, we figure 20 litres is 20 litres, and it had from Sunday to Friday to harden before it got wet. In the evening we masked off all the cream bits and undercoated them.

Monday. Still cold and now raining. The roof and all the other cream bits got their first coat of gloss

and all the old paint, blacking, and ugly chunks of welding got stripped off the stern. (At some time in the past there was a platform attached to the back, probably for a generator, and the remains of the supports had been left behind.) In the evening, under the strip lights, Dave marked out the sign writing for the front.

We went out shopping on Tuesday – more paint and another tin of Owatrol, (terrific stuff!) then back to our fridge/wind tunnel for the second coat of cream gloss

and finished the sign-writing.

On Wednesday, although it wasn’t in the plan, Dave took a wire brush to the tumblehomes. (The bit between the top rubbing strake and the gunnels.) It made sense to attack them while they’re at shoulder height rather than kneeling on the towpath. After kneeling on the roof for 3 days it was nice to stand up for a bit, so by the end of the day they’d been prepped, red-leaded and black undercoated. We’ve given the back end a more traditional colour scheme of cream & red and brought out the detail on the steelwork in black; over the week it got red-leaded, undercoated and given 3 coats of gloss

On Thursday we carefully put all our stuff back on the roof. The paint is going to take a couple of weeks to harden so we’ve got to look after it. The tumblehomes got a rub down and coat of gloss black

much nicer than the flaky cream, they’re going to get another 2 coats in a while, but the 3 coats they got in 2 days need a bit of a rest. In the evening , to celebrate our achievements, we went out to the nearest Weatherspoons for dinner and a de-frost.

We were up first thing on Friday morning with fenders and ropes attached, and by 9am Legend was being gently lowered back down the slipway into the water.

After a rather haphazard bout of reversing we pulled up onto the water point at the other end of the basin

bought some coal and a bottle of gas, did some laundry and then with a cheery wave, chugged under the bridge out of the basin and back up the cut towards Windmill End.

Despite everything, despite being cold, in a shed, up some wobbly steps at the wrong end of the boat and being right out of our comfort zone, it’s been good. We got far more done than we thought we’d have time or energy to do; all that’s left now, as far as outside painting is concerned, are the black panels on the sides, the signwriting on the back and the back doors. We can do all that in smaller chunks. The people have been lovely, the basin is really pretty and we’re definitely coming back in 4 years to do it all again. Only next time we’ll be a bit later in the year and hopefully a bit warmer.